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/lit/ - Literature

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9860429 No.9860429 [Reply] [Original]

As as translation student, I think we should have a translafag thread.

So, share some info
>native language
>something you have translated (some widely known classic work maybe)
>particular translation that has fascinated you, or gave you diarrhea (some translation of Dostoevsky's work to English for example)
>etc.

My native is Macedonian. I haven't translated any big lit work yet.
I think I have some interesting experience to share:

In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, there's a verse that says "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day". Well Shakespeare wanted to say that the person in question is "mediocre", because the summer day in England isn't really that hot - it's generally warm, but it's often cloudy and rainy. Unlike in other countries, for example my country (Eastern Europe), where the summers are hot af. So, when you translate the verse to my language, it should actually be "Shall I compare thee to a fall's day", because the falls here are mediocre, very close to England's summers. But then, "summer" has two syllables, and "fall" has one, and you come to realize that translation could be more difficult and fucked up than you thought.

Another interesting case:
Recently, an intellectual genius translated the complete works of Shakespeare in my language. He also translated some Oscar Wilde, particularly "The Importance of Being Earnest". Earnest is both an adjective and the name of the novel's protagonist. So when you translate it, it has to be both adjective and name in the target language. So, in my language it was translated something like "The Importance of Being Deartogod". Because, there's an actual name in my language that means something like "dear to god" (made up from those words connected). Also, to be earnest is what God wants us to be, therefore if we are earnest we will be "dear to god". So there you go, you get a name that is actually existent in the target language, and it is also a kind of adjective conveying a very close meaning to the adjective in the source language. And, throughout the novel, the protagonist has to be named "Deartogod" every single time his name is called.

Question: I bought Wordsworth's translation of The Count of Monte Christo, is it any good?

Funfact: most of the famous writers were translators themselves, and vice versa.

>> No.9860434

>>9860429
>In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, there's a verse that says "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day". Well Shakespeare wanted to say that the person in question is "mediocre

Are you trolling or just retarded?
He's not saying the person is mediocre he's using a summer day to talk about how lovely they are.

>> No.9860454

>>9860434
That is not the point. I haven't even read the song, nor do I feel competent to. If he talks about HOW lovely they are, than that means that they're not the loveliest, just mediocre lovely.

>> No.9860460

>>9860454

>I haven't even read the song

So why are you insisting on argument when you literally have no idea what you're talking about?

>> No.9860478

>>9860460
OK, whatever, I didn't even start the argument, go back to your bugs and carrots threads.

>> No.9860488

>>9860434
>>9860429
yeah OP wtf are you on about, The days in summer are generally nicer than the other seasons even in that mystical place England.

>> No.9860498

>Well Shakespeare wanted to say that the person in question is "mediocre", because the summer day in England isn't really that hot - it's generally warm, but it's often cloudy and rainy.

t. insecure girl who can't take a compliment

>> No.9860503

>>9860478

I mean this is not a minor detail, you totally misread the entire spirit of the sonnet.
Don't you think if you are going to start a thread about translation and propose to give us insight into Shakespeare, especially on an English speaking site, that you should at least have read the fucking thing you're talking about?
You sound like a young guy so maybe this is a lesson to have a little more humility dude.

>> No.9860546

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

>> No.9861211

>>9860429
>Recently, an intellectual genius translated the complete works of Shakespeare in my language. He also translated some Oscar Wilde, particularly "The Importance of Being Earnest". Earnest is both an adjective and the name of the novel's protagonist. So when you translate it, it has to be both adjective and name in the target language. So, in my language it was translated something like "The Importance of Being Deartogod". Because, there's an actual name in my language that means something like "dear to god" (made up from those words connected). Also, to be earnest is what God wants us to be, therefore if we are earnest we will be "dear to god". So there you go, you get a name that is actually existent in the target language, and it is also a kind of adjective conveying a very close meaning to the adjective in the source language. And, throughout the novel, the protagonist has to be named "Deartogod" every single time his name is called.

Funny you mention it, in my translation lessons (I'm Spanish) I was taught the same example. In Spain the name was translated as Ernesto. The pun is lost but the translated title it's already too ingrained in the culture for changing it. A good alternative would be to change the name (same as in the example you mentioned) to Honesto, an actual name in Spain and also an equivalent to the adjective in the pun.

>> No.9861966
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9861966

>>9860429
>In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, there's a verse that says "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day". Well Shakespeare wanted to say that the person in question is "mediocre", because the summer day in England isn't really that hot - it's generally warm, but it's often cloudy and rainy.

Yo, OP, don't want to rag on you like many others in the thread, because you aren't entirely wrong, but Shakespeare does mean this as a compliment.

>Shall I compare thee to a summer's day
>Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Here, it's presented as a good thing that English summer's are "temperate", meaning they are an ideal balanced temperature. So, the fact that the person that the sonnet is addressed to is "temperate", means they are sort of serene and (for lack of a better word) balanced and not temperamental. It is meant as a compliment and not to suggest that the person is mediocre

>> No.9861975

>>9861966
But, as a side note, I want to say that even though I'm a monolingual pleb, translating is patrician and threads like these are a good idea

>> No.9861993

>>9860429
how about "autumn" for a two-syllable word meaning "fall" dumbass

>> No.9862501

>>9861993
The translation would be a different language dumbass

>> No.9862567

>>9861993
The issue is that you won't even realize that a two-syllable word is mandatory, and you'll put "fall" anyway, thinking it's all the same.